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Southland Times, Issue 22296, 11 April 1934, Page 8

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RECENT BROADCAST COMMENTS ON MR SHAW AUTHOR LISTENING-IN (Per United Press Association.) Wellington, April 10. On March 13 last the liner Rangitane was within two days of Auckland with Mr and Mrs George Bernard Shaw on board. On the evening of that, day the speaker from Station IYA, Auckland, in a lecture made some comment on Mr Shaw, his works and his habits. Thereby hangs a tale, which until now, has not been told. It is a curious fact, although unquestionably nothing more than a coincidence, that Mr and Mrs Shaw were together in the ship’s drawing-room at the time and that Mr Shaw asked an officer, who happened to be nearby, if they might listen to the wireless. The loud speaker by itself was in the i-oom, and to turn it on the officer had to go to the central switchboard elsewhere in the ship. He did this, leaving Mr and Mrs Shaw alone in the drawing-room. The only thing he remarked about the broadcast lecture at the time was that it was being delivered by Mr John Lane, a visitor from the Bodley Head Publishing House, of London. It was not until some minutes latex- that he happened again to be neax- the drawing-room. The words he heard coming from the loud speaker were enough to give him the impression that he ought to make a tactful entry. The lecturer, in reminiscence and comment, was showing that he had no great love fox- Mr Shaw. The officex- entered. “I can’t turn this thing off,” said a voice from near the floor of the drawing-room. MxGeorge Bernard Shaw was on his hands and knees neax- the loud speaker, working at the screws at the base of the wall, where the radio flex was connected with the main. Then the words of the broadcast ceased abruptly. Mr Shaw had managed to “turn it off.”